A recent study from Brigham Young University (BYU) put some science behind elk movement during hunting season on the Wasatch Front, validating the importance of Utah private land elk hunts. When the broadheads and bullets start flying, more ...
Elk
Shed Hunting Tips From Connor Clark: How to Rule the West
The annual antler drop — a remarkable few months when antlered critters drop their headgear — is a time period that’s as eagerly anticipated as the mule deer and elk ruts. For many shed hunters, the time of year is all about family and friends; large ...
First-Time Hunter, Grandmother Tags Bull During Wisconsin Elk Season
The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources recently wrapped up its fourth annual lottery elk hunt, which proved to be a rousing overall success; nearly every hunter who drew a tag killed an elk during the 2021-2022 limited hunting ...
How Virginia’s First Tag Lottery for Elk Management Zone Bulls Will Work
The return of elk hunting in Virginia is expected to draw many people to the Commonwealth in 2022. And soon, hunters will have a shot at drawing for a chance to pursue Virginia bulls. The Department of Wildlife Resources recently announced formal ...
Dead Silent: How To Hunt Quiet Elk
Whenever we think of elk hunting during the rut, we think of monstrous, screaming bulls, bugling and chuckling as they canter after cows and chase off all challengers to their reign as kings of the mountain. We fantasize about calling them in, ...
Montana Elk: New Regs Could End Bull Hunting on Some Public Lands
Proposed changes to Montana elk hunting regulations could make tagging a bull more challenging for public land hunters and open up more opportunities for landowners. With large concentrations of elk on private land causing damage to ranches ...
Utah Drops Proposed Elk Hunting Lottery, Will Issue OTC Tags in 2022
Considered one of the last over-the-counter (OTC) permit opportunities for hunters in Utah, elk hunting tags have become a hotter ticket than toilet paper during the first COVID lockdown. Even still, a recent proposal from the state Division of ...
Utah Elk Hunting: Intense Backcountry Rescue Saves Hunter’s Leg
Utah hunter Coy Kummer hoped to end his elk season hauling out a big bull. Instead, it ended with a broken leg, a wild rescue, and several major surgeries. On Oct. 10, 22-year-old Coy and his father, Brian Kummer, were hunting the northern ...
Virginia Elk Are Back! Whitetail Hunter Tags 700-Pound Home-State Bull
Richard Bryson always takes two weeks’ vacation during Virginia’s early muzzleloader season, which gives him so extra time to work on filling his deer tags every year. He never expected to use one of those tags to check a bull elk, but that’s exactly ...
Father Shot, Killed While Elk Hunting With Son: Importance of Gun Safety
Every year we hear about the injuries or tragic deaths of hunters across the country due to unsafe actions in the field. Unharnessed falls from treestands, negligent firearm discharges, misidentified targets, failed fence crossings, and drownings are ...
Three Late-Season OTC Western Hunts You Can Do Right Now
Didn’t draw a tag this year? Perhaps you just couldn't plan a 2021 Western hunt in time, or maybe you just weren’t sure you could get away from work or family. You must be feeling some major FOMO right now as you scroll through the socials, liking ...
Colorado Elk Hunting: Herds Are Thriving on the Plains Once Again
In the early 1980s, hunting areas along the state of Colorado’s eastern plains provided equal opportunity for upland, waterfowl, mule deer, and pronghorn. Whitetails were a bit of a rarity. Rifle and bowhunters would bump into a heavy-horned brute if ...
Elk Rescue: Colorado Elk Freed From Tire After Two Years
A bull elk in Pine, Colorado, found himself in a tight spot when he somehow got his head stuck in a car tire, leading wildlife officers on a two-year chase that ended with an unusual elk rescue. Colorado Parks and Wildlife officers first observed ...
Elk vs. Moose: Know Your Bulls
Some hunters have a problem with animal identification. We’re not talking about understanding the subtle taxonomic differences between a yellow pine chipmunk, cliff chipmunk, and uitnta chipmunk. No, hunters are having a hard time identifying elk vs. ...
World Record Bulls: The Top 5 Typical Archery Elk
There are big bull elk. Then there are really big, world-record-class bull elk. The Pope and Young Club awards North America’s finest archery-killed wapiti by size in two categories: typical or symmetrical antlers and non-typical or unsymmetrical ...
Trophy Elk: The Top 5 Non Typical Archery Bulls of All Time
An archery stalk on any elk is no easy task, but getting bow-and-arrow close to the biggest bull elk in the world is another thing altogether. Elk are uber wary, have highly evolved senses, and tend to vanish if they even think something isn’t right. ...
So You Want to Shoot an Archery World Record?
Potential world record big game animals exist no matter your home range. (There’s a freak in every crowd.) But some regions are just downright better than others when producing archery world-record animals. What makes these places so unique? No one ...
How to Score a Bull Elk
You just sent an arrow through the bull of a lifetime. The adrenaline has finally subsided. Your hands stop shaking. You realize when your buddy said, “He’s big,” it was a goddamn understatement. You grab an immense G4. It’s nearly as thick as a soda ...
Hunter Shoots Possible Lightning-Struck Elk in Montana
Minnesota native Brandon Dahring shot the first elk of his archery hunting career late last month in Montana. Of all the shot scenarios that played out in his head before the trip, he never imagined his 300 feet-per-second arrow finishing the job ...
Texas Elk Hunting is Brimming With Free-Range Opportunities
It was the third afternoon of my first-ever elk hunt. Young and full of piss and vinegar, there was no mountain too steep or terrain too rough. I had no clue what I was doing. All I knew was I had a rifle in my hand, it was sighted-in (sort of), and ...
How to Read Wind and Thermals to Get on Big Deer and Elk
There are hundreds of gadgets, gizmos, and products available on the market designed to help you to stay “undetectable” and beat an animal’s nose. While some of these products can help you reduce your scent, they are far from a magic-bullet solution ...
How To Speak Elk, Lesson 2: Understanding Every Funky Sound
It only takes a few go-to vocalizations to get bulls bowhunting close. But of course, elk make more than three or four sounds. Those interested in upping their elk game should learn the language elk use to communicate with each other. Here’s another ...
Breaking the Curse: A Decade-Long Elk Hunt
The first year I hunted elk, I drove from New York to Colorado in my beat-up Tacoma and camped high on a forest service road. I wanted to kill my first one solo and with my bow. I hiked in by myself on the second day of the season. A few miles deep, ...
455-Inch Bull Set to Crush the Pennsylvania State Elk Record
A monster bull elk tentatively tallying 455 inches could be the largest to ever come from the Keystone State. When the elk, shot last October, is officially scored next July, it will likely rank sixth overall in the Boone and Crockett record books ...
Speak Elk: The 3 Elk Calls You Need to Hunt and Kill Big Bulls
Elk are big, regal, and majestic. They taste incredible, their antlers are remarkable, and they live in storied country: dark timber patches, unsullied alpine meadows, aspen-sprinkled hillsides. They are magical, mythical animals to observe and to ...
Tule Elk Hemmed in by High Fence Are Languishing in California Drought
A string of nearly 100 volunteers hiked 350 gallons of water more than three miles on Saturday, Aug. 28, in an attempt to save a suffering herd of tule elk. The water was brought to a dying pond within California's Point Reyes National Seashore, an ...
Bowhunting Elk: 7 Last-Minute Efforts That Can Improve Your Chances
The bugling was nearly constant as my guide made cow calls, and I cracked sticks to impersonate live elk. It took at least 10 minutes, but our ploy was more than the satellite bull could stand. With the wind blowing in our faces, the bull cruised ...
Elk Hunting on Public Land: How To Build a 3-Year Strategy for a New Area
Public-land elk hunting is hard. The average success rate is below 10%, yet more and more hunters head West to give it a shot every year. Some find success in year one, but most don’t. That's why I like to utilize a three-year strategy when ...
Add Core Training to Your Rucking Routine for Elk Hunting Prep
September is so close you can almost hear the bugling of a bull elk in the distance. If all goes to plan, you’ll be hiking that big boy out of the mountains in quarters. You’ve been rucking to prepare, but adding some simple core training will have ...
Elk Hunting Returns to Virginia for First Time Since the Mid-1800s
Local landowners, Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation (RMEF) volunteers, and the Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources have worked for decades to bring elk back to the Old Dominion State. That work has paid off. For the first time in at least 166 ...
